Safe Takeout by Doomtree's Sims

Muddy Waters vestibule

You know all those memes that were going around in the beginning of quarantine, which essentially admonished that Shakespeare wrote Twelfth Night or whatever while on quarantine during the plague? Yeah, I hated those memes. I can barely brush the ratsnest out of my hair let alone come up with a masterpiece.

But there is something to be said for a little downtime, or so findeth Andrew Sims of Doomtree. When I asked him on the phone how he was doing, he said, "You know, I'm just meeting all the uncertainty with effort." Now this, this I recognize.

When Sims realized that all his tour dates were going to be canceled he found himself hanging out with Matt Kelly at Street Factory Media, who was also faced with a bunch of free time. SFM is a collective of designers, artists, fabricators and the like which typically design pieces for experiential events, so: downtime.

The two of them got to talking about the quarantine's impact on Sims' wife, Sarah Schrantz who co-owns Muddy Waters in LynLake. "She had to pivot to takeout and it's all new for them because it's normally a full-service place. She was sad to lay off her workers, but she was also worried about how to protect the ones who were staying on to help with takeout. She was concerned about how to show up for them and for the delivery drivers who were suddenly coming to her door all the time." Keeping workers safe from the virus has been a heavy thought on many restauranteurs minds as they fight for their livelihood and the livelihood of their workers.

And in fast creative fashion, amongst idle hands, an idea was born: Safe Serve Doors. These vestibule structures are created to help maintain a safe and clear physical distance between food workers and everyone else, basically turning the front door into a walk-up drive-thru. Giving buildings a pick-up window and clear access points makes safe and clean protocols most effective. "We wanted to make something that was sturdy and intentional," Sims told me, "that would give people confidence. But we also didn't want it to feel permanent, because this is just a moment in time." And we are all hoping to get back to true human interaction, soon.

"It was also important for us to make something that was not disposable, adding to waste. So these structures can be taken apart and flipped around to be used again as needed. Throw a table in there and it's a sampling tent that you can take to a festival or something. Maybe later it can live on your patio as a pickup point for beer." Having Sarah and her partner Paddy Wahlen be a part of the design process was important to make sure it was functional, but Sims thinks this could work for many small businesses that are dealing with pickup and delivery right now. "It's totally customizable, we have three models that can be wrapped however you want, plus we have these vinyl strips that mark out six feet, and onto them we can add a QR code that links to your YouTube video of mixing drinks, or whatever!"

Braden Doucette

getting takeout from a window

This is pretty cool. And it helps support local businesses and workers. More creative responses like this are better than sonnets, IMHO.

Sims and SFM know that restaurants are struggling right now, and they've tried to fabricate these Safe Serve Doors at the lowest cost possible, while still paying their own employees. But they are hoping to hit some of the bigger brands, which they've worked with on events and design solutions, who might have some budget room to help donate a few to local spots. CONTACT Street Factory Media for more details and pricing.

"You know we can't fix what's happened out there, but we can figure out how to survive it." Sims, finding hope through creativity and effort.

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Food and Dining editor Stephanie March writes and edits Mpls.St.Paul Magazine’s Eat + Drink section. She can also be heard Saturdays on her myTalk107.1 radio show, Weekly Dish, where she talks about the Twin Cities food scene.

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